Oscars

The nominees are out and I’m ready to pick again. Last year’s accuracy rate was 58%; not bad for my first time. Again, I haven’t been out to see all of the films (you’d think a guy who saw over 430 films in one year would have time for the theater) so I’m going to just make my picks. I did catch up on the nominees and winners from last year and will probably do so again after the ceremony.

Best Picture: Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance). It’d be cool if The Grand Budapest Hotel got it since it’s time Wes Anderson got a Best Picture win.

Best Actor: Michael Keaton (Birdman)

Best Actress: Felicity Jones (The Theory of Everything)

Best Supporting Actor: Ethan Hawke (Boyhood)

Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Kiera Knightley (The Imitation Game)

Best Animated Film: Song of the Sea. I’m surprised The LEGO Movie got shortlisted for this category. I haven’t seen this one but if it’s anything like it’s predecessor, The Secret of Kells, then it’s a treat and deserves to win. My mainstream pick would be How to Train Your Dragon 2.

Best Cinematography: The Grand Budapest Hotel. I don’t think I have to say any more than that.

Best Costume Design: Into the Woods.

Best Directing: Boyhood.

Best Documentary (Feature): Finding Vivian Maier.

Best Documentary (Short Subject): The Reaper (La Parka)

Best Film Editing: Boyhood

Best Foreign Language Film: Ida

Best Makeup and Hairstyling: The Grand Budapest Hotel

Best Music (Original Score): Interstellar

Best Music (Original Song): “Everything is Awesome” (The LEGO Movie)

Best Production Design: The Grand Budapest Hotel

Best Short Film (Animated): Feast or The Dam Keeper

Best Short Film (Live Action): Aya

Best Sound Editing: The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

Best Sound Mixing: American Sniper

Best Visual Effects: Interstellar

Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay): Inherent Vice

Best Writing (Original Screenplay): Foxcatcher

I’m hoping to at least match my rate or improve this year. But enough about me, what about your picks?

I didn’t watch the Oscars. I planned to stream it but somehow it wasn’t available in my location. I ended up hitting the refresh button on IMDB every few minutes just to see who won (up to maybe 350 times over the ceremony if you want a conservative guess). I didn’t expect to do too well for my first year of actually picking the winners but I don’t think I did too badly at . This is in the order as given by IMDB as updated by Category: Winner (my pick).

I will admit that I haven’t seen about 90% of the films nominated like pretty much everyone else online. Unless I’ve seen the film, I won’t give a reason why I chose something. It will be guessing for the most part. It’s terrible, especially for someone majoring in film, but money’s tight and I don’t have the same kind of luxury as everyone else does. More than likely I’ll review the winners and nominees after all is said and done when the DVD is available.

Best Picture: 12 Years A Slave

Best Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio, The Wolf of Wall Street

Best Actress: Sandra Bullock, Gravity. She definitely carried the movie on her shoulders. Much like after the shipwreck in Life of Pi, one person has to act believable on their own in an isolated space. Sandra clearly demonstrated that.

Best Actor – Supporting: Barkhad Abdi, Captain Phillips

Best Actress – Supporting: Lupita Nyong’o, 12 Years A Slave

Best Animated Feature Film: The Wind Rises. That or Frozenfor the American pick.

Cinematography: Gravity. The long take at the beginning is well executed. With all of the planning that had to happen to make it work, I will be disappointed if it doesn’t win.

Costume Design: The Great Gatsby

Directing: Steve McQueen, 12 Years A Slave

Documentary Feature: The Square

Documentary Short Subject: Facing Fear

Film Editing: Gravity. While it is an intense film, it is not edited intensely. It is a nice departure from what I call “blender films” where the footage is edited together like it was put through a blender (even though it’s pretty much all digital these days). I can’t stand those kind of films unless the editing is unified like it is here.

Foreign Language Film: The Hunt

Makeup and Hair Styling: Dallas Buyers Club

Music – Original Score: Saving Mr. Banks

Music – Original Song: “Let it Go”, Frozen. A dynamic piece of work that shows that Disney is getting their game back from the 1990’s slate of films. That, and the scene with the song is grand in literal scale.

Production Design: 12 Years A Slave

Short Film – Animated: Feral. Similar to my Best Animated Feature pick, I think Get a Horse! will probably win because of the history behind it and it’s the American pick. That is a good short but Feral looks much more impressive just from the trailer alone.

Short Film – Live Action: Helium

Sound Editing: Gravity. Even though the theater I saw it in was louder than normal, it was still extraordinary to listen to.